Clay Helton's brand of bland consistency helps USC live up to the hype

LOS ANGELES — Clay Helton isn’t the first coach to preach the virtues of winning the day, nor will he be the last. The theme first breathed to life by former Oregon coach Chip Kelly has become part of college football’s coaching lexicon, often imitated but never truly duplicated. Simplified, the win-the-day tack offers that winning from Sunday through Friday breeds success on Saturday. But talent doesn’t hurt.

Ability has never been in short demand at Southern California. Since ascending to the big office after less than two months as the program’s interim coach in 2015, however, Helton has added blandness. This isn’t a bad thing: After Lane Kiffin’s immaturity and Steve Sarkisian’s documented off-field issues, the Trojans needed to dial back the intrigue.

So if he repeats the quest to win the day — win each day, in Helton’s lingo — it’s fine. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel, so he keeps it simple. If he tenders up platitudes and clichés to the media, that’s fine, too. The Venn diagram of coaches who make great quotes and coaches who win championships is two circles with just a whisper of an overlap — maybe Dabo Swinney at Clemson, but that’s it.

But Helton is consistent. USC needed consistency. For too long the Trojans were awarded the national title in July before spending Christmas in El Paso, Las Vegas or San Diego. This past offseason felt familiar: USC was anointed the co-favorite in the Pac-12 Conference, alongside defending conference champion Washington, and pegged as a prime contender for the College Football Playoff.

Maybe the program’s spotty recent history — last fall notwithstanding, when the Trojans took home the Rose Bowl — made us wary. If so, Saturday’s victory against Stanford should change that. The team that showed up in the Trojans’ 42-24 win, kicking in the door and running the Cardinal off the Coliseum field, might do more than win each day — it may win every day, most notably the Saturdays from here through December.

“We played to our standard,” Helton said.

It was a noteworthy win for two reasons: one, that it came on the heels of a sloppy season-opening victory against Western Michigan, a too-close-for-comfort debut; and two, that it came against Stanford, which for the better part of a decade stood to represent everything the Trojans were not. The program’s volatility was never more plain than when juxtaposed with Stanford’s workmanlike efficiency.

“They’ve had our number for the last couple years,” said sophomore quarterback Sam Darnold, in an understatement. The past three meetings between the pair went like clockwork: USC would enter with confidence and leave humbled. To see the Trojans take it to Stanford, therefore, means this might be a new USC.

They gained 623 yards of offense, the most the Cardinal have allowed since a 52-31 loss to Oregon on Oct. 2, 2010. They did it with balance, adding 307 rushing yards — again the most Stanford has given up since that loss to Oregon — to Darnold’s 316 yards passing, punting just once and perhaps leaving at least one additional score on the field; Darnold threw two interceptions, both via miraculous grabs by Stanford defensive backs.

“I don’t think that is ever going to happen against Stanford,” Helton said of his team’s offensive output. “We have a lot of respect for them, especially their defense. There’s been some hard roads and we’ve had some hard days with them in the past. But I thought our kids had their jaws set. I thought they had the mentality to want to come out and be physical. Credit to them — they executed it.”

Now we’ll see if they can repeat it. On defense, at least, the Trojans have adopted a saying: “Stay up here,” linebacker Cameron Smith said, raising his outstretched hand, palm down, above his head. “Stay up here all game long. And I think we’re playing well right now — we’re playing four quarters of football and we’re only going to be better.”

It can be easy to forget that this level of play isn’t necessarily new; it dates to last September, when the Trojans kicked off their active 11-game winning streak. The offense has gained at least 400 yards in each victory, and the defense has only once — in a memorable Rose Bowl win against Penn State — allowed more than 6.5 yards per play. The stretch is remarkable in one specific respect: USC’s consistency, week-in and week-out, against a run of both conference and out-of-conference opposition.

Beating Stanford, and in the manner it did, only validates the preseason expectations.

“We answered some questions that we needed for ourselves,” Smith said.

It also should have eyes looking forward, at a schedule that only bolsters the idea that USC is destined to stand front and center as a mover and shaker in the Playoff chase throughout the regular season.

This weekend brings rebuilding Texas to the Coliseum, a long-awaited rematch a dozen seasons after Vince Young and the Longhorns shocked the favored Trojans to claim the national title. Matchups against Utah and UCLA come at home in October and November, respectively, with road trips to Washington State, Notre Dame and Colorado peppered among games against clearly inferior competition.

“Our schedule is 12 weeks in a row and there’s not a bad opponent on there,” Helton said. “We have to again play to our standard, which is Trojan football. And if we don’t bring our A game, if we don’t play up to our standard, then we can get beat.”

After all, he added, the goal is to be 1-0 each week.

But how about every week? If you’re looking for a potential difference between today’s USC and the USC of the recent past, it’s not in the hype or acclaim, the swagger or the overall talent, but in the reformation of a standard: The Trojans trading smug overconfidence — which would annually and inevitably backfire — for Helton’s brand of bland consistency.

“I know it’s coaching talk. We try to honor this place, this stadium, every time we walk in,” Helton said of his win-each-day mindset. “It’s still early in the season. We’ll add them all up in the end and see where we’re at. But for right now, this was a great feeling as a head coach.”